Hotels & Hospitality Industry Consultants: 7

David Rutecki's career spans 39 years of Restaurant and Hospitality related experience. Working in more than 20 restaurants and involved in the opening of more than a dozen, he has worked every position possible within this industry. Mr. Rutecki currently owns and operates Mountain Deli in Hendersonville, garnering the 2016, 2017 & 2018 Blue Ridge Growth Award. He is a Member of the North Carolina and National Restaurant Associations. Mr. Rutecki has been invloved in the following selected restaurants:

• Fancy’s Food and Wine, Gourmet Shop, Coral Gables, South Miami & Grove Isle, Fl.
• Susie’s Bagels, Breakfast Restaurant, South Miami, Fl.
• Pizzaria Uno, Full Service Restaurant, Miami, Fl.
• Baystreet, Full Service Seafood Restaurant, Miami, Fl.
• Rusty Pelican, Upscale Seafood, Key Biscayne, Miami, Fl.
• Rudolph's BBQ, Upscale BBQ, Miami, Fl.
• Signature Gardens, Upscale Catering Hall, Miami, Fl.
• Chart House, Upscale Seafood, Coconut grove, Fl.
• Cafe Tu Tu Tango, Coconut Grove, Fl.
• Gatsby’s, Upscale Billiards and Cigar Bar, Boca Raton, Fl.
• Prezzo, Casual Italian, Boca Raton, Fl.
• Maxwell’s Chophouse, Upscale Steakhouse, Boca Raton, Fl.
• Mountain Deli, Delicatessen, Downtown Hendersonville, NC
• Tabica Grill, Upscale American, Jupiter, Fl.
• Jonathon's Landing Marina Club, Upscale Boating Club, Jupiter, Fl
• Jetty's, Upscale Seafood, Jupiter, Fl.
• Austin Grill, Casual, Washington, DC.

Litigation Support - David Rutecki offers expert witness and litigation support for restaurant related issues in the United States. His services are available to counsel representing both Plaintiff and Defendant. Areas of Expertise:

• Restaurant and Kitchen Design, Menu Development
• Food Safety and Sanitation
• Bar Operations & Liquor Liability... Dram Shop
• Safety & Security - Slips, Trips and Falls
• Daily Operations & Management, Employee & Staffing Issues
• Retail Operations
• Staff & Mgmt Training Programs & Handbooks
• Business Plan Development

Perry Group International, founded in 1985, provides consulting, interim hotel management and restaurant and hospitality expert services for lodging, food services, resorts, and nightclubs. Their group does work nationally and internationally with new startup, profitable, and under-performing and distressed hotels, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, retail and mixed-use real estate. 

The professionals at Perry Group International serve as third-party asset manager, owners representative, and advisor, for investors and owners. They also act as court appointed receivers and interim hospitality managers for lenders, operators, and their legal and real estate professionals. Clients have included Biscuits & Blues, Cantina’s, Chevy’s, Choice Hotels, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inns, Hilton, Holiday Inns, Hooter’s Casino, Hyatt, Marriott, McDonald’s, Microtel Inn & Suites, Outback Restaurants, Radisson, Residence Inns, Signature Resort, Sizzler, Sonic Drive-Ins, Starbucks, Starwood, Sheraton, Togo’s, Wendy’s, and Willie Mays Skybox Lounge among others.

Hospitality Management Consulting:

Hotel Restaurant Nightclub Consulting:

Dennis Gemberling, CHA, CFBE, FMP, FCSI, President and Founder of Perry Group International, has over 35 years of experience in the Hospitality Management industry. His experience includes managing, operating, and consulting on full-service, limited-service, extended-stay, all-suite, condo and timeshare hotels and resorts, casual, fine-dining, and quick-service restaurants, bars and nightclubs, special event facilities, casinos, and mixed-use real estate. 

Mr. Gemberling has held prior positions for different owners, operators, and chains as Senior Vice President, General Manager, Director of Food & Beverage, and Restaurant Unit Manager. He has been retained for over 400 projects with typical values in the $1 million to $75 million range and revenues in the $1 million to $100 million range both nationally and internationally. 

View Dennis Gemberling's Expert Witness Profile.

Parallax Education is an Organization Development firm specializing in the Prevention of Employment Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation. They offer highly-specialized, distinctly effective, and specifically designed training to provide breakthroughs for teams and entire organizations

Parallax has consulted with numerous Fortune 500 companies, including American Express, ARCO, Sizzler Int’l, First Interstate Bank, Exxon, Jack-in-the Box, Washington Mutual Bank, Ritz Carlton Hotels, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, RAND Corporation, MCA/Universal Studios, MTA, and Motown Record Company. 

Web-Based Training

Instructor Led Training

Monica Ballard, President of Parallax Education, is an Organizational Development Consultant with 25 years of experience specializing in the Prevention of Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation. She has trained over 500 Human Resources professionals in conducting investigations and trained over 10,000 persons on the subjects of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.

Monica has written over 20 workbooks and produced 4 web-based training programs on the prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation  She has written 4 workbooks on Conducting Effective Investigations. She has been Interviewed on CBS News, CNN, and Fox News, and featured in newspapers including the WSJ, LA Times (8 times), US News & World Report, Time Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, New York Times, and others. 

View Monica Ballard's Expert Witness Profile.

Gary Deel, Ph.D., J.D. has 10 years of experience in executive-level positions in the hospitality industry and 10 years of experience teaching hospitality management and law curriculum for some of the nation's top hotel schools.

Dr. Deel holds both a Ph.D. in Hospitality and a J.D. in Law, so he understands the nuances of expert witness testimony from the perspective of attorney strategy. He has also worked in a variety of different hospitality industry capacities including operations, sales, security and risk management, training and administration, and others. His services are available to help attorneys make the strongest possible arguments for clients in hospitality-related cases. Dr. Deel offers expert witness services nationwide in the areas of:

Recent Cases:

• Suit against Miami beach resort involving catastrophic injury in the ocean and hotel duty to warn about latent hazards known to hotel and not obvious to visitors (plaintiff).
• Suit against Orlando city center convention hotel involving sexual assault of a minor guest by an employee and hotel duty to monitor employee whereabouts and activities (plaintiff).

Preston Rideout is a nightclub and bar consultant specializing in Dram Shop Expert Witness Testimony. He has 25 years of bar operations experience and 75 alcohol safety certifications. Preston is CEO of Rideout Hospitality and Founder of The Dram Shop Experts.

Upon graduating from the University of Mississippi, Preston relocated to Las Vegas to work for Pure Management Group. While in Las Vegas, Preston operated Coyote Ugly, Tangerine Nightclub, Pure Nightclub, PCD Lounge, LAX Nightclub, Noir Bar Audigier Nightclub, EVE Nightclub, Venus Pool Club, and Rehab Pool Party inside Treasure Island Casino, New York New York Casino, Caesars Palace, The Luxor, Aria Casino, and The Hard Rock Hotel. After Las Vegas, Preston launched Rideout Hospitality.

As CEO of Rideout Hospitality, Preston provides consulting to casinos, hotels, resorts, restaurants, nightclubs, bars, and hospitality management groups across the United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas. Clients retain Preston to optimize bar operations, create alcohol service policies, implement operating procedures, and conduct bartender training. Together. Preston and his team of consultants have provided consulting to over 250 clients

Areas of Expertise: include but are not limited to Alcohol Service, Alcohol Policies, Alcohol Procedures, industry Standard Bar Operations, Casino Bar Operations, Nightclub Operations, Restaurant Operations, Mechanical Bull Operations, Pool Party Operations, Management Oversight, Bartender Training, Intoxication Identification, Liquor Liability, Premise Liability, Wrongful Death, Slip & Fall.

Alcohol Certifications: Preston Rideout has 75 Alcohol Safety Certifications, including Techniques for Alcohol Management  (TAM), Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS), Responsible Beverage Service (RBS), Responsible Alcohol Server Program (RASP), Alcohol Seller Server Training (ABLE), Alcohol Beverage Commission (ABC) in all 50 states. 

Litigation Support: Preston Rideout provides Dram Shop Expert Witness Testimony for both plaintiffs and defendants.  

Litigation Experience: Preston Rideout has been retrained 73 times to provide Dram Shop Expert Witness Testimony. He’s been retained 23 times by Defendants 50 times and by Plaintiffs.

View Preston Rideout's Expert Witness Profile. 

Chasen Capital Advisors is a strategy and business advisory services firm specializing in the Hospitality and Vacation Ownership Industries.  At their core, they provide knowledge and practical solutions to assist industry players in the many aspects of the hospitality and vacation ownership industries including operations, sales and marketing, asset management, acquisitions, financing and branding strategies.

Chasen Capital Advisors specialize in working with and managing inter-disciplinary teams in the areas of architecture, construction, legal, resort operations, finance and development.  In real estate, every project is different and every solution unique and tailored made.

Consulting Services

Hospitality Services - Hotel operations, hospitality litigation and expert testimony, fractional ownership, contracts review, capital markets, hotel repositioning, acquisition and dispositions, management contract negotiations and franchise selection.

Vacation Ownership Services - Financial, sales & marketing, product development, legal & litigation services, and capital formation and origination consulting.

Asset Management - Owner’s representative, board member, asset manager and outside consultant; monitor property operations, including management company performance; analyze property reporting, including variances relative to pro forma, provide real-time recommendations for property and operational improvements, etc.

Acquisition Due Diligence -  Physical product development and sales; acquisition due diligence; economic and financial feasibility services; liquidity issues and financing options resulting from review and analysis of the consumer receivables portfolio; managing the servicing of consumer receivables, etc.

Management Contract Disputes - Corporation defined, used primarily for a purpose, taxable income, transfer pricing, tax returns.

Jon R. Simon, Managing Partner, is an experienced Finance and Investment Professional with decades of Consulting, Operations and Investing experience. He has a long and accomplished background in the Hotel and Vacation Ownership Industries where he has advised some of the largest U.S. investment funds, hospitality and gaming companies, and high net worth individuals.

Mr. Simon started his career at KPMG where he was elected to the partnership at the age of 31, making him the youngest full equity partner in the United States. At KPMG he headed the firm’s hospitality and real estate consulting practice for the Southeast US, Latin America and the Caribbean focusing on hotels, mixed-use resorts and shared ownership.  He also served as a national acquisitions partner serving senior roles in some of the largest hospitality industry acquisitions.

After leaving Starwood, Mr. Simon was one of the 5 founding principals of a late-stage private equity fund oriented to the hospitality industry where he also assumed the role of Chief Investment Officer.  In his first full year, he oversaw the underwriting and closing of over $150 million of direct investments, representing over $500 million of asset value.

View Jon R. Simon's Expert Witness Profile.